Suba
In Biggles in Borneo, Suba was the chief of the the local Punan tribe which lived in a village near the Lucky Strike base. Suba first met Captain Rex Larrymore when the latter landed at a dry lake bed hoping to clear the place for a landing strip (which Biggles would later name "Lucky Strike"). Rex noticed Suba had an arm bandaged with dirty leaves and so he dressed the wound using the medical kit in his aircraft. Suba thus became firm friends with Rex and proved to be very helpful later. Johns provides a description of Suba in Chapter 2 using yet another one of his effective word pictures. In that chapter, Suba met Biggles and 666 squadron when they first arrived at Lucky Strike with Rex. Suba was six feet four inches tall with arms of proportionate size. His torso was festooned with all manner of decorations from teeth and claws to brass cartridge cases and tin cans. An ivory tusk was worn in one ear as a ear-ring. There were rings of brass around his wrists and ankles and he wore a foot tall hat shaped like an inverted saucepan decorated with interwoven coloured feathers. After Rex introduced Suba to Biggles, he got his warriors, some five hundred of them, to help 666 Sqn set up their base, erecting hangars, living quarters and store houses, mostly made from Mipas palm fronds. In chapter 4, the "bush telegraph" brought news to Lucky Strike that 3 men were attempting to proceed upriver in a boat pursued by Japanese troops. When Biggles agreed to attempt a rescue, Suba led a band of his warriors through the jungle to reach the boat while Biggles and his squadron provided support from the air. The Japanese pursuers had almost caught up when the Beaufighters from Lucky Strike found and attacked them from the air. Shortly thereafter, Suba's rescue party arrived and finished the job. They then took the survivors on the boat (escapees from Cotabato prison camp) back to Lucky Strike. Later, when Algy and Ginger were forced to bale out over an island in the Sulu group while returning from a reconnaissance of Cotabato, Suba, and his hunting partner, Kalut, accompanied Biggles to the island to find out what had happened. Noting that the island had a small Japanese base, Biggles sent Suba and Kalut forward to reconnoitre the camp. They brought back a Japanese prisoner who admitted under questioning that Algy and Ginger had been taken to Cotabato. During the Cotabato rescue operation, Suba was, again, a member of the shore party. He was tasked to meet up with the local natives and arrange drum signals to the inmates of the prison camp (which included locals as well as Allied troops) to alert them of the impending rescue. Towards the end of the book, when General Yashnowada had landed with a strong force at Brunei and was proceeding towards Lucky Strike, Suba led his warriors to intercept them. They found the Japanese encamped in a valley about 30 miles from Lucky Strike and sent word back to Biggles which allowed 666 Sqn to make an air attack on the encampment. Suba and his warriors then finished the job and returned to Lucky Strike in triumph. At one point in the book, Biggles declared that he would, in his report, call attention to the outstanding work done by Suba for which he deserved a medal. Biggles thought that in close country like the jungles of Borneo, someone like Suba was better than having a squadron of tanks. Rex had noted that Suba would probably prefer a tin of sardines to a medal. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:WW2 era characters